Family Detective

British movie stars don't come much bigger than Jude Law, who has starred in a string of Hollywood films, including The Aviator, Alfie, Road to Perdition and AI: Artificial Intelligence, while collecting Oscar nominations for his roles in The Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain. His love life is also the source of endless media fascination, but what few of us know is the family background that might have propelled Jude to his current stardom.

Who is he related to?

David Jude Heyworth Law was born in 1972, the son of Margaret Anne Heyworth and Peter Robert Law. The couple married in 1967, when both were taking the first steps on the road to becoming teachers. Margaret's family tree is relatively easy to trace. Her father, John Clifford Heyworth, latterly worked as a shopkeeper in Lancashire, and his father, John Willie Heyworth, was a master brush-maker in Bacup, employing several men. This was an area of Lancashire heavily reliant on the cotton trade for work, so John Willie's choice of career is particularly interesting given the social and economic context of his origins. He made a deliberate decision to leave the cotton factory where he was employed throughout most of his working life. Indeed, at the time of the 1891 census, both his siblings, Fred and Sarah, were listed as cotton weavers, living at home to support their widowed mother Susannah. Fred started in the factory at the age of 12. Susannah's husband, Samuel, had previously worked as a cotton spinner, so for John Willie to break away from the family "trade'' must have taken courage, determination and business acumen. Without his drive, it is unlikely that his daughter - Jude's mother - would have received the opportunity of an education and a career as a teacher.

The really interesting story emerges when the background of Jude's father is investigated. On his marriage certificate, his name is recorded as Peter Robert Law, formerly known as Peter Robert Tagg, with his father listed as Eric Phillip Law, an accountant. However, his birth certificate in 1943 is registered under the surname Tagg, and his mother, Emily Florence Ethel Tagg, a domestic servant at the George Hotel in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, was clearly unmarried. Peter's birth was the result of an affair between Emily and Eric, who had previously married Constance Butterfield in 1926 when he was still working as a bank clerk.

The two backgrounds could not have been more different. At the time of Emily's birth in 1911, her father, James Tagg, was a horse keeper in Limehouse in the East End of London. This was a time when motorised personal transport had only just been invented, yet was about to eclipse traditional forms such as horse-drawn hackney carriages. James must have felt that his livelihood was under threat, especially given the fact that he had a large family to support following his marriage in 1894 to Agnes Laing. Prior to this, he had signed up to the Royal Artillery as a driver, having been brought up in Aunt Isabel's house during his formative years in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

His wife's family also had military connections. Agnes's father, William Laing, served as a trumpet major in the Royal Artillery, and his young family spent several years moving from barracks to barracks, before he was eventually discharged on a pension, whereupon William turned his hand to writing.

Returning to the Laws, it would appear that Eric Phillip Law had forged a career in the world of banking and accountancy, but his roots reveal something different. His father, William Law, was a master baker, born in 1868 in Brixton, south London. He married Caroline Messent and was sufficiently successful to be able to hire a general domestic servant and a nurse to help his wife look after their young family. It would appear that he had followed in his father's footsteps: John Law was a bread- and biscuit-maker based in Lambeth, south London, having moved from Edinburgh with his Scottish wife, Mary Ann, to set up a business.

This raises an interesting debate about "nature'' versus "nuture''. Was Jude's father aspiring to his paternal lineage, hence the change of name from Tagg to Law? Or was he the product of the Tagg military upbringing? Perhaps it was the Tagg influence that prevailed, enabling Jude to settle into his roles as a sniper in Enemy at the Gates and a hitman in Road to Perdition.